DRUG WAR: AN AMERICAN EPIDEMIC

With the Meth Epidemic Raging, States Try Limiting Access to the Ingredients.

Lt. Ron D. Smith of the Nevada County Sheriff's Department has seen
plenty of drug users in his time, but nothing quite like the ones
tweaked on meth. In his "sleepy little county" in central California,
40 percent of all arrests are meth-related. The crimes, he says, are
getting wackier and wackier.

"Meth actually makes you crazy," Smith says.

That's the scariest thing about methamphetamine, an illegal drug that
has reached epidemic status across much of the United States. After
it invades the central nervous system to achieve its high, meth turns
perfectly normal people into psychotics, often violent ones.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan calls methamphetamine "perhaps
the most destructive drug ever encountered."

Crime log entries from coast to coast confirm her assessment. In
Nevada County, a meth addict in a psychotic state broke into an
elderly woman's home, inexplicably bearing a can of gasoline, and
beat her up. There was no motive. In New Mexico, a man high on meth
and alcohol beheaded his 14-year-old son and tossed the head from his
van window onto a busy highway. In Cave Junction, Oregon, the parents
of a three-month-old were arrested for meth possession and child
endangerment. Their baby's feeding bottle was touching a drug-filled
syringe and hypodermic needle that was "loaded up and ready to go,"
police said.

Methamphetamine is a brain-damaging drug. A stimulant similar to
cocaine, it causes an intense rush when smoked or injected
intravenously and a sense of euphoria when used orally or sniffed.
The substance, which can be easily made using household chemicals
like lye and cold medicine, has been shown to alter brain cells
permanently and cause neurological symptoms similar to those seen in
Parkinson's disease.

As with similar stimulants, methamphetamine often is used in a "binge
and crash" pattern. Eventually, users enter a stage called "tweaking"
on the way down from their high. It is then that they are prone to
violence, delusions and paranoid behavior. Many believe they are
being followed or harassed and "end up taking action against imagined
persecution," Smith explains.

The unpredictable behavior has prompted law enforcement agencies to
set special guidelines for officers encountering suspects: Stay seven
to ten feet away because moving closer could be perceived as
threatening. Don't shine bright lights at a suspect who could go
berserk if blinded.

Considering the risks, it's hard to imagine why any sane person would
choose to use this highly addictive stimulant. Yet sane people by the
hundreds have found the temptation irresistible.

Take, for example, the deputy auditor in Evansville, Indiana, who
pleaded guilty in October to embezzling nearly $28,000 in taxpayer
money. He said he needed the money to buy methamphetamine for a habit
that began while he worked 16-hour days processing tax bills.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 2003
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (the latest available), more
than 12.3 million people age 12 and older reported that they had used
methamphetamine at least once in their lifetime. That's up 40 percent
from 2000 and 156 percent over 1996. While the cost varies by region,
users can expect to spend an average of $100 per gram, or about $25 a "hit."

"Why would anyone use any illegal drug?" asks Lt. Smith. "I guess you
just use it a few times to see what it's like and it probably makes
you feel real good. Then you fall into that common addiction behavior."

Meth, however, is anything but common. Even heroin seems mild in
comparison, Smith says. "A heroin user will shoot up and nod for a
while. They'll steal to support their habit, but they won't go crazy."

As if the dangers of ingesting meth aren't enough, its manufacture in
makeshift labs that "cook" its ingredients in an explosive stew poses
extreme risk to those present and neighbors.

Economic implications are enormous because of its ripple effect
through criminal justice, child welfare, and medical systems. There
are more arrests, more trials and more people going to prison, as
well as more child protection cases. In addition, police are
struggling to find the money to clean up meth sites, which can cost
$1,000 a pop if cooking has occurred and disposal specialists are
called in. For every pound of methamphetamine produced, five to seven
pounds of toxic waste remain, which is often poured into streams and
septic systems.

There's also the cost of fighting fires when explosions occur, and
treating human injuries. Four Vanderburgh County, Indiana, residents
were hospitalized recently as a result of lab explosions, and two had
to be flown to a special burn unit in Louisville for treatment. The
dollar signs just keep adding up.

A July 2005 report, "The Meth Epidemic in America," prepared for the
National Association of Counties, warned that local government
budgets may be stretched to the limit by the war on meth. The survey
of 500 county law enforcement agencies in 45 states revealed
staggering increases in law enforcement expenses. Among the findings:

. 58 percent of counties reported that meth is now their No. 1 drug
problem, while 19 percent cited cocaine, 17 percent marijuana, and 3
percent heroin.

. 82 percent of counties said their workload has gone up due to
meth. Fifty-two percent said they have had to pay more overtime; 13
percent have had to shift work assignments, and 11 percent are
assigning police officers to longer shifts.

. Half of all counties said that one out of five jail inmates is
incarcerated because of meth-related crimes. Seventeen percent of
counties said more than half their inmates were there because of meth.

. 40 percent of child welfare officials blamed meth for an increase
in out-of-home placements of children determined to be living in
abusive or neglectful situations.

Although user horror stories are on the rise, one statistic appears
on the decline. For almost a decade, the number of meth labs seized
by police has doubled or even tripled annually, especially in the
Midwest where more than 50 percent of the labs are found. In 2005,
the number started to fall.

North Dakota police shut down 31 meth labs from June through
September 2005, compared to 85 over the same period in 2004. Attorney
General Wayne Stenehjem credited the decline to a new law requiring
retailers who sell cold pills with pseudoephedrine to ask customers
for identification and write down the buyer's name, address, birth
date and driver's license number. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in meth.

Similarly, the number of lab busts has fallen in Indiana, a direct
result of a new law requiring stores to keep many cold medicines
behind counters, state officials say. Meth lab seizures declined from
a peak of 141 in March 2005 to 53 in September 2005.

Oklahoma was the first state to restrict sales of pseudoephedrine in
2004. Since then, Oklahoma has experienced an 80 percent drop in
small lab busts.

Thirty-seven states now restrict sales of pseudoephedrine, which is
found in at least a dozen cold medicines. But the laws vary from
requiring a prescription to simply limiting the number of packages
purchased at the same time. Thirteen states have no pseudoephedrine
laws, although some have legislation pending, the National Conference
of State Legislatures reports.

John Von Arx, chairman of the Commission for a Drug-Free Indiana,
said it's too early to tell if the drug laws are making a permanent
dent in the problem.

For one, shipments of meth produced in foreign countries continue to
flood the state. In addition, it's possible that meth manufacturers
are becoming more sophisticated and being driven further underground.

Mom-and-pop laboratories in the United States produce about 35
percent of the total meth production. The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration says Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating
"super labs" in Mexico and California control the rest. These
laboratories can produce more than 10 pounds of methamphetamine in
one 24-hour production cycle.

The methamphetamine seized annually en route from Mexico to the
United States has increased dramatically since 1992. Authorities
seized 1,370 kilograms of methamphetamine along the border in 2001,
compared with only 6.5 kilograms in 1992.

Behind the headlines of crazed criminals and lab busts are individual
stories of people trying desperately to kick a habit that is ravaging
their brains and their bodies. Finding funding for treatment programs
is emerging as the next big issue for county justice systems.

Successful meth treatment requires the use of cognitive-behavioral
therapy, which is expensive and time-consuming. Research shows that
recovering addicts require a longer and more intense outpatient
program than is needed for many other drugs. Without follow-up,
relapse is likely.

In Nevada County, first- and second-time drug users are offered a
rehab program instead of prison time, thanks to Proposition 36, a
measure approved by California voters in 2000.

"The voters had good intentions," Lt. Smith says. "I don't think
Proposition 36 is doing much good." Too often, Smith says, patrol
officers haul meth addicts off to jail only to see them back on the
street within days.

Drug treatment funds are scarce in virtually every U.S. city, a sign
that meth still holds the upper hand in this frightening epidemic.